Chapter Thirteen
Our boat arrives within the next nine minutes. I can’t believe I’m actually doing this again. I don’t know what it is about Preston, but I can’t bring myself to say no to him. And the more I get to know him, the more I think he might actually be just a good guy with a bad guy habit. I look in the mirror and smile. Okay, so maybe I won’t marry him, but one date won’t hurt.
I open up the bathroom door and scurry to the meeting place to find Brad Pitt—I mean, Preston waiting for me. We link arms and traipse off the boat as if we own the place. People are watching and taking pictures. Then I see Kristin squint at me questioningly as if to ask, “Do I know you?” I quickly duck my head into Preston’s arm and walk faster toward the other side of the dock.
“Did you tell them?” I ask Preston as we near the next corner.
He’s still smiling. “Of course. They think you weren’t feeling well, and we’re going to stay behind to talk with the on-call doctor. They have no idea. Trust me.”
I nod my head and smile as we pass a few more star struck teenagers on the dock. “Beach?” He asks leading me down to the docks. My stomach growls in complaint.
“Actually?” I say stopping him. “I want food.”
“A girl after my own heart,” he teases and he pulls me back from the dock and into the first restaurant on the boardwalk. It’s one of those little restaurants with sand as a floor, and I love it.
“Spill,” I say, taking a sip of water. I;m actually enjoying all the weird stares and camera phones pointed our way. I think I could get used to this.
“What?” He asks confused.
“Why are you being nice to me when all you actually want to do is get back at me for what I did to you in high school?” There. I said it.
“Wow. You still thinking about that? Because it was such a long time ago.” He smiles.
“Ha-ha. Very funny,” I mock.
“Amanda, you need to learn how to trust people. My plan is not to date you then dump you in front of the entire school. That would just be weird. Plus, we aren’t even in school anymore, and it would be a lot of work to get all of those people together again for a reunion.”
The man has a point. “Sure. Okay, if you say so.” I grab a tortilla chip from the basket. Mexican food in Hawaii? That’s just weird. As I dip into the salsa, the table begins to vibrate strangely. “Oh my gosh! It’s an earthquake!” I shriek.
His look is anything but panicked. “Um, try a cell phone?” He picks up his phone and waves it in the air at me.
“Oh, right.” I sit back in my seat.
“Decaf, Amanda. You should try it. Might change your life,” he smirks and checks his phone. His look turns dark as he tosses it back onto the table.
“What?” I ask curiously
“Nothing. Just work.”
“What? They have a fire they can’t put out without you?” I tease.
“Something like that,” he looks away and stuffs a chip into his mouth.
Okay, I know I’m not supposed to like him or anything, but I can tell something is bothering him; although, he won’t tell me anything. I mean, I don’t know. It just seems like he’s totally bummed out all of a sudden, so I decide to do something about it.
“Follow me,” I say, holding out my hand after he pays the check. Okay, and here’s the other thing, he always pays. Even if I have money, he pulls out his wallet and pays for it. Derek never paid. In fact, he would take out his cell phone and use the calculator app to make sure I was paying my fair share. The jerk.
“Where we going?” Preston asks as he falls into step beside me. People aren’t staring nearly as much now, which is what makes this all the more fun.
“You’ll see,” I reply. “But we have to be quiet, because we’re sneaking in.” I slip my finger to my lips to shush him.
“O-kay,” he whispers cautiously, raising one eyebrow at me. I can just see the hint of a smirk playing around his lips. I pull him into the theater next door and tell him to close his eyes while I pay for a couple tickets. I lead him into the back row hardly able to control my smile and guide him into a seat.
“Surprise,” I whisper.
He opens his eyes and his mouth drops open.
“It’s Star Wars,” he says in disbelief.
“Aw, I knew the little nerd was in there somewhere.” I pat him on the head. Instead of a smug remark like I’m expecting, Preston has this look of complete awe as he turns to face me.
“How did you remember? No, wait. How did you even know? Do I want to know how you know?” He asks leaning in towards me.
“Senior year. You had a Star Wars t-shirt on underneath your sweater-vest. I did some investigating later when I was planning to apologize and found out that you were the president of the fan club for our school.” I’m now beaming. I’ve finally one-upped him, and it feels awesome.
“I hate you for remembering that.” He looks down at his hands. He almost looks embarrassed. “You were going to apologize?” He meets my eyes again.
“Of course,” I shrug. “I felt terrible, plus the guy I went with ended up cheating on me with Betsy Lou,” I say with venom tipped words.
“Dang that Betsy Lou always stealing boyfriends,” he agrees as he pulls my hand into his lap.
“She was my nemesis back in the day,” I say matter of factly.
“She couldn’t hold a candle to you if she wanted to,” Preston replies as he pushes his fingers through my still damp hair.
“This is what we would have done,” I say breaking the moment.
“What do you mean?” He gets the picture, because in that instant he backs away from me.
“Our date. Had I said yes to prom, I’m sure you would have taken me on a date, and I would have wanted to do this.” I lean in close and kiss him on the cheek.
“Does that mean we can make out now?” Preston asks huskily.
“Um no, this means I’m sorry.” I laugh and punch his arm.
“Shoot, I always wanted to make out at the movies, especially in the back row.” He crosses his arms completely dejected. I, however, don’t want to lose. Therefore, I decide not to lean in and kiss him, even though the tension is so thick between us you can cut it with a knife.
I finally look around to see who else is joining us in the theatre and notice several curious glances pointed our way. It dawns on me that we’re still in our “costumes”, making us look ridiculous. I mean, I highly doubt Brad and Angelina go to Star Wars while vacationing in Hawaii.
We both smile and wave as we excuse ourselves into the lobby and back out onto the street feeling, I might add, extremely light footed and fancy free.
“Where to?” I ask then hear my cell phone go off.
“Where are you guys?” The voice on the other end is Kristin and the only reason I know is because of caller ID. Other than that, she sounds like a mental hospital escapee.
“Whoa,” I respond.
“Do not ‘whoa’ me. We’ve been looking for you forever. Did Preston kidnap you or something? And why do you disappear every time we see celebrities?” Her voice has now returned to normal.
“Bad luck?” I answer innocently.
“Well...maybe…Look, Brad got kind of sea sick. We’re back at the room now. We’re probably going to call it a day and hang out, so you and Preston are on your own again.” Her words immediately cause my heart to flutter. What’s wrong with me?
“Okay,” I answer, trying to hide excitement from my voice. “We’ll manage I’m sure—”
“Panda,” she interrupts. “I know you're mad because I keep forcing you and Preston together, and I promise I wouldn’t have done it except…well except…” She pauses on the other end of the phone.
“Except what?” I ask, curious. I stop in my tracks.
“Except, well, Brad made me promise not to tell. And he only just found out, and now I feel like a terrible friend. And I promise Preston’s safe and all, I just didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
“About what?” I ask again, frustrated.
“Ask him about his ex-wife.”